Part of God’s Household

Several years ago a friend came to me very upset one Monday. “I am not adopted!” she declared. “What?” I asked. “I am not adopted!” she repeated. “Yesterday, in church, the affirmation of faith said that we are adopted as children of God. I am not adopted!” I had to break the news to her. She is adopted. You are adopted. Did you know that you are adopted? Every single one of us is adopted.

Jesus is God’s one and only Son. We are adopted as children of God when in baptism we are clothed in Christ.

I think our adoption story is a lot like a little boy named Dylan. Dylan is 10, and he says of his adoption, “Adoption isn’t something I think about a lot because to me my life is normal and I forget that everyone doesn’t have a birthmom and birthdad in addition to their parents. To me, this is just normal and feels right. My Mom and Dad have always told me my story and it should be that way. I have a big sister who my mom gave birth to and a little sister. I got to be at my little sister’s birth like my big sister got to be at mine. I do remember being at the court when my little sister became forever my little sister. Now we are all one family and I like having a big sister and a little sister a lot. They aren’t my adoptive family. They are my family, period.”

When we are baptized, we are incorporated into Christ. We are united with Christ, and with all who are in Christ; we become brothers and sisters. We are the family of God. We live together in God’s household. We aren’t an adoptive family. We are family, period – one big family – in all times, in all places, in all circumstances – we are family, period. By baptism, we are incorporated into the family, so it is known as the initiating Sacrament. Then, the Lord’s Supper, Communion, is the sustaining sacrament. So, we are baptized once. Once family, always family. Then, we eat together as we receive Communion throughout our lives.

This morning we are taking a closer look at the Sacrament of Baptism. But first, let’s take a look at the things that are the same about both Sacraments. Both are mysteries – we don’t fully understand them. Both are God’s action. Both Sacraments, Baptism and Communion, use everyday things – water, bread, wine or juice – take on holy significance as we receive God’s grace through them. Both are sign and seal, meaning they are deeply symbolic of God’s desire to be in relationship with us and the seal, the actual action of God, extending grace to us. You may wonder why Protestants only have 2 Sacraments. Two criteria were used for determining what is a Sacrament and what is not. The first criterion is whether it is something Jesus practiced and commanded that we practice. The second criterion is whether it is something that is for all people.

I think it is also significant that there are two covenantal Old Testament practices: Circumcision, when infants were initiated into the family of God at 8 days old, and the Passover Feast, the meal celebrating God’s deliverance of God’s people.

John Calvin thought of Baptism as the circumcision of the heart described in Deuteronomy when Moses makes the Ark of the Covenant and places the Ten Commandments inside it, Moses says to God’s people, “God loved your ancestors. He chose their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So circumcise your hearts, and do not be callused and stiff-necked anymore.”

And then, the prophet Ezekiel spoke God’s word of promised redemption with a description that sounds like baptism, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;….I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Of course, the idea of baptismal washing was not one that Jesus initiated. , Ritual cleansing was an important part of Old Testament life. John was baptizing with water and promised that the One coming after him would baptize with Spirit.

So, when a person is baptized, the water represents washing, being made clean. But it is not a once for all time washing, and it also doesn’t mean that every time you really get dirty you need a new bath. Presbyterians affirm that “baptism calls us to lead a life of commitment to God’s will, a life of Christian discipleship.” (Liturgical Resource, Office of Worship, PCUSA). AND, we also know that “regardless of when we are baptized, our life as Christians after baptism will never be as totally committed as it should be. We never life up fully to the claim upon us that is part of baptism. [So], repentance is an ongoing part of Christian discipleship.”(ibid.)

We practice that every Sunday in the Prayer of Confession and the Assurance of Pardon. Baptism is not a washed clean, so clean you never get dirty. It is more like putting on cloths that have been Scotch Guarded.

The Scotch Guard is Jesus. In baptism, we are washed, and we are clothed in Jesus. In the early church, when someone was getting ready to be baptized, they would wear sackcloth and ashes, all black and sooty dirty. Then, for the baptism, they would take them off and be baptized without cloths on. The symbolism was that they were dying and being buried, and then raised in Christ. So, after the baptism, they put on a white robe.

Why water? Water is life-sustaining. You and I are mostly water. Babies are 78% water, and by the time we are adults we are around 60% water. We need water to breath, to circulate our blood and carry nutrients to our cells, to absorb shocks to our body, to help in digestion, to metabolize proteins and carbs, to flush out waste, and for our cells to reproduce. We cannot live without water.

And the water of baptism makes us think of God’s faithfulness throughout history. What stories come to mind when we think of water in the Old Testament: Creation, where nothing existed but chaos (which of course, in Old Testament times was understood to be the sea, so nothing existed but water) and God spoke…and even the water, even what was chaos, is now under God’s control. The Flood, where God cleansed the world and made a covenant with Noah and his family. The Parting of the Red Sea, where Moses led the people out of slavery to freedom and then across the Jordan where God’s people Israel entered the Promised Land.

At the same time that baptism is deeply symbolic, in baptism, we are actually adopted as God’s own child.

Here we answer the question “Who am I?” You belong to God. You are a member of the household of God. Long before you can love God, even when you turn your back on God, God loves you, and God calls you home. When we baptize an infant, we recognize that God’s love claims us before we can respond in faith. God’s love claims us even when we don’t understand it.

Martin Luther, whose actions catalyzed the Protestant Reformation, throughout his life, whenever his faith was weakening and his courage waning, when he was tempted, he would repeat to himself, “I am baptized…I am baptized…I am baptized…” and he would know a renewed sense of power to face the challenge in front of him.

So, when we come to this font and pour in the everyday common water, we pray. And we remember the story of God working through water to redeem God’s people. And we remember that water washes us, and that we die to sin and death and rise to new life, and that we are renewed as recipients of God’s covenant, and adopted into God’s Household. And we are living out Jesus’ commission to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our Book of Order, in the Directory for Worship, says of baptism, “As circumcision was the sign and symbol of inclusion in God’s grace and covenant with Israel, so Baptism is the sign and symbol of inclusion in God’s grace and covenant with the Church.”

Church, we are children of God, members of God’s household, brothers and sisters in Christ. We aren’t an adoptive family. We are family. Period. Thanks be to God! Amen.